Pigeons, humans, and why do we start civil wars

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Nice text I just found on global guerrillas blog :

“We expect the universe to make sense, to be consistent, and when the contingencies change we get testy. Interestingly, this is not unique to humans. In one experiment, two pigeons were placed in a cage. One of them was tethered to the back of the cage while the other was free to run about as it wished. Every 30 seconds, a hopper would provide a small amount of food (a fixed interval schedule, as described earlier). The free pigeon could reach the food but the tethered one could not, and the free pigeon happily ate all the food every time. After an hour or so of this, the hopper stops providing food. The free pigeon continues to check the hopper every 30 seconds for a while, but when it’s clear that the food isn’t coming, it will go to the back of the cage and beat up the other pigeon. Now, the interesting thing is that the tethered pigeon has never eaten the food and the free pigeon has no reason to think the other is responsible for the food stopping. The frustration is irrational, but real nonetheless. John Hopson, a game researcher at Microsoft.”

Well said. This easily explains the root of civil war in former Yugoslavia. We couldn’t solve real life problems but we for sure knew how to burn kill and destroy. Sad.

Librivox, learning etc

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I’ve posted this to Librivox.org forums.

“Hi all,

What do you think about reading stuf by someone who is not native English speaker? Would it be of any use?
I am planing to get a degree (CAE – certification in advanced English), but dont have much people with whom to practice talking, so my idea is to read things, so if I read it why shouldn’t I record it?
Does this make sense?

I know it would be much better if the reader is from USA or UK, but this idea sounds nice to me, play, work and learning combined, a win win solution. Like the playpump for water pumping where childern play and at the same time pump water http://blog.playpumps.org/how-the-playpump-system-works/

Please let me know what do you think.
Thanks,
Sasha”

I am always excited about the possibility to combine work play and learning. I think this is somewhat like that.

Parable – Leo Tolstoy

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This text is copied from some place on internet. Hopefully its in public domain.

PARABLE

by LEO TOLSTOY

I see mankind as a herd of cattle inside a fenced enclosure. Outside the fence are green pastures ans plenty for the cattle to eat, while inside the fence there is not quite grass enough for the cattle. Consequently, the cattle are tramping underfoot what little grass there is and goring each other to death in their struggle for existence.

I saw the owner of the herd come to them, and when he saw their pitiful condition he was filled with compassion for them and thought of all he could do to improve their condition.

So he called his friends together and asked them to assist him in cutting grass from outside the fence and throwing it over the fence to the cattle. And that they called Charity.

Then, because the the calves were dying off and not growing up into serviceable cattle, he arranged that they should each have a pint of milk every morning for breakfast.

Because they were dying off in the cold nights, he put up beautiful well-drained and well-ventilated cowsheds for the cattle.

Because they were goring each other in the struggle for existence, he put corks on the horns of the cattle, so that the wounds they gave each other might not be so serious. Then he reserved a part of the enclosure for the old bulls and the old cows over 70 years of age.

In fact, he did everything he could think of to improve the condition of the cattle, and when I asked him why he did not do the one obvious thing, break down the fence, and let the cattle out, he answered: “If I let the cattle out, I should no longer be able to milk them”